Alcoholic Gastritis: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment

Gastritis can also be caused or exacerbated by a variety of other factors. For instance, if you eat a lot of spicy foods, you’re more likely to suffer from gastritis. If you combine irritants like spicy foods, smoking, stress, or certain autoimmune diseases with alcohol consumption, you’re putting yourself at a greater risk of developing gastritis. Pylori bacteria, you will be given medicines to help kill the bacteria.

While we’ve talked about the link between alcohol and Crohn’s disease, have you ever heard of alcoholic gastritis? This is one of the various complications that can occur as a result of alcohol abuse or chronic drinking. While it’s an uncommon condition, it’s more likely to occur in people who drink heavily over long periods. If this sounds like you, keep reading to learn about the signs and symptoms of alcoholic gastritis.

Newsletter Sign up

Hydrochloric acid is one of the substances produced by the stomach and would eat through the muscle if the stomach were not protected by its mucous lining. When there is not enough mucous to counteract the acid, however, the stomach lining becomes inflamed, and gastritis can result. Alcohol interferes with the mucus lining, leaving the stomach unprotected against the corrosive acids. If alcoholic gastritis is diagnosed and treated, people who suffer from it will not experience any long term effects. However, if it is ignored, it could lead to feelings of dizziness or weakness and shortness of breath. It could also result in internal bleeding, vitamin deficiencies, and polyps or tumors in the stomach.

Some of these conditions may require surgery to completely resolve, and could present life-threatening risks to the individual. In particular, obstruction or perforation of the stomach are emergency situations that require immediate intervention and can lead to death if not treated. Gastritis means that your stomach’s inner lining is inflamed or worn down. Alcoholic gastritis is what people call it if gastritis happens because of alcohol use.

Addiction Treatment Programs

If your doctor suspects gastritis, you may be referred to a specialist in digestive disorders (gastroenterologist). Weaknesses or injury to the mucus-lined barrier that protects the stomach wall allows digestive juices to damage and inflame the stomach lining. A number of diseases and conditions can increase the risk of gastritis, including inflammatory conditions, such as Crohn’s disease. However, one of the most common indicators of the development of gastritis is the regular consumption of alcohol.

• Answers questions about substance abuse, its symptoms, different types of treatment, and recovery.
• The best way to treat alcoholic gastritis is to stop using alcohol.
• Alcoholic gastritis can be diagnosed with a careful look at your medical history and a thorough physical exam.
• “Gastritis” is a general term used to describe inflammation of the stomach lining.
• Call right away if you have side effects from your medicines or have questions about how to take them.
• Your doctor may also recommend lifestyle changes during treatment, such as eating smaller meals and avoiding spicy or acidic foods, coffee, and colas.

Call your healthcare provider if your symptoms get worse or if you have new symptoms. Call right away if you have bloody vomit, blood in your stools, or black, tarry-looking stools. Call right away if you have side effects from your medicines or have questions about how to take them. If your gastritis is caused by an illness or infection, your healthcare provider will also treat that health problem. Alcoholic gastritis is a condition caused by excessive alcohol consumption that can lead to inflammation of the stomach lining. The condition may be reversible, especially when alcohol use is stopped.

Alcoholic gastritis

In most cases, you will be given antacids and other medicines to reduce your stomach acid. This will help ease your symptoms and heal your stomach lining. If you suffer from alcoholism, it’s important to seek treatment for both conditions.

• This makes it easier for harmful bacteria to colonize the gastrointestinal tract and cause infections.
• Heavy drinking, alcohol cravings, anxiety, and/or depression when not drinking are all signs of a drinking problem.
• While we’ve talked about the link between alcohol and Crohn’s disease, have you ever heard of alcoholic gastritis?
• Over time, prolonged alcohol abuse can interfere with the natural production of bicarbonate ions that protect your stomach cells from the harsh environment present in the stomach.
• Sometimes lifelong management is required, including medications, reparative surgery and avoiding certain irritating foods.
• Explore Mayo Clinic studies testing new treatments, interventions and tests as a means to prevent, detect, treat or manage this condition.

Chronic alcoholic gastritis is the long-term breakdown of the mucosal layer in your stomach. This breakdown occurs through the same process as acute alcoholic gastritis, but the symptoms are often a little different. For people who drink alcohol regularly, they usually do not experience the symptoms of acute gastritis because, over time, alcoholic decreases their sensitivity to nausea and vomiting. If left untreated, chronic alcoholic gastritis can lead to recurrent ulcers, liver damage, pancreatic damage and stomach cancer. It’s no secret that alcohol can have serious long-term effects on your health, including stomach problems.

Medications

Left untreated, gastritis may lead to stomach ulcers and stomach bleeding. Rarely, some forms of chronic gastritis may increase your risk of stomach cancer, especially if you have extensive thinning eco sober house boston of the stomach lining and changes in the lining’s cells. Your healthcare provider may prescribe medications to reduce stomach acid production and protect the stomach lining from further damage.

Acknowledging the risks of excessive alcohol use is an admirable step in the right direction, and we’re here to help you take the next one. Lastly, if tests reveal other factors contributing to gastritis in addition to alcohol consumption, a doctor may take special care to remedy these issues. Pylori bacteria is found during diagnostic testing, a doctor will likely prescribe antibiotics https://sober-house.net/ to try and kill the bacteria. Alcohol, or ethanol, can have profound impacts on multiple organ systems in your body, including genetic disorders like alcohol intolerance, and it is a complicated substance. Your gastrointestinal (GI) tract is typically the first line of defense that your body employs to protect against foreign toxins, including alcohol and other substances.

You are unable to access treatmentsolutions.com

If you have alcoholic gastritis, The Recovery Village at Cherry Hill can help you stop using alcohol and start feeling better. Explore Mayo Clinic studies testing new treatments, interventions and tests as a means to prevent, detect, treat or manage this condition. Acute gastritis caused by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or alcohol may be relieved by stopping use of those substances. If you are vomiting blood, have blood in your stools or have stools that appear black, see your doctor right away to determine the cause. Your stomach is a muscular sac about the size of a small melon that expands when you eat or drink. Once your stomach breaks down the food, strong muscular contractions known as peristaltic waves push the food toward the pyloric valve.